BLANDING LANDING, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS CAMPGROUND, ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, BLANDING, IL

3 to 5 June, 2004. We took Highway 11 across Wisconsin and then dipped back into Illinois near the Mississippi River. It was a very nice drive. We had no problem getting an electric site here because, apparently, none ever comes here. Our site overlooks the Mississippi River, across a well manicured field of freshly cut grass. We saw a wild turkey, deer, an injured turtle and a cool frog in the area. Long, speeding freight trains constantly barrel past the campground- some of the sites are right next to the tracks. We're about 100 yards away. The birds have been very aggressive in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, nearly attacking us on several occasions. Also, the bees and wasps are still attracted the our bright orange home on wheels. The showers are pretty good here but no internet access. The campground host was planting flowers when we arrived and then we met Moon, the maintenance man, who also wants to travel the country.

Rocky painted the bumpers and is currently fixing the wheel well with fiberglass bondo. We may end up trading the bus for a boat. We went into Dubuque, Iowa to answer email and get laundry done. We also bought a new $20 Vivitar digital camera to add to the old $20 digital camera that was half the resolution. We lost many pictures on the other camera- it would reset itself before we had a chance to upload the pictures. Just crossing over the river renewed my desire to get a boat. We could literally float all the way down to New Orleans with little or no power. We ordered more CD mailers, CD sleeves, cigarettes (link at bottom of page for cheap cigarettes) and a external hard drive adapter which is all being sent to my parent's house in Mt. Prospect. With the adapter, we can hook up a 40 GB hard drive that we've been carrying around for the past three months. We're planning on staying at a campground in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where my grandmother and dad grew up. We'll probably head east once we re-supply, perhaps taking the ferry across Lake Michigan and then heading to Maine. We'll see.

RL. So I called AT&T because they messaged me that my account was low, after only using the phone for about 25 min., total. I spoke on a payphone here at the campground to at least three different customer service persons. Since I could not understand any of their middle eastern accents, and their refusal to let me speak to someone in the US, I will take my losses and move on to another company.

AT&T Prepaid Cellular
BAD

I do like the whole prepaid services the cellular telephone companies have been coming out with. We still have our Verizon Prepaid, but it only works in non pcs areas.

June 6, 2004, RL 7:30am, Woke up, made some coffee, I think I will wait untill the sun is completely up before I remove the tarp (Living Room). Its a pretty day. We will be heading to Thomson Causeway today........